Israeli forces demolished the home of slain Palestinian Farouk Ramadan, who was killed in the West Bank’s Tell on July 24 in a shooting between Israelis and local Palestinian residents that followed a settler incursion, the IDF said.
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Smoke rises as Israeli forces blow up the house of Palestinian Farouk Ramadan on Tuesday. Credit: Mohamad Torokman/ REUTERS
Smoke rises as Israeli forces blow up the house of Palestinian Farouk Ramadan on Tuesday. Credit: Mohamad Torokman/ REUTERS
Two Israelis and four Palestinians were killed in July’s shooting after armed settlers entered a nearby Palestinian town and a Palestinian resident seized a weapon from one of the settlers. The incident triggered a wave of settler raids and attacks on surrounding Palestinian villages.
An IDF investigation published Wednesday found that hundreds of Israeli settlers entered Palestinian Authority-controlled areas without military authorization hours before violence erupted, and that it could not determine who fired the shots that killed Israeli Benayahu Mellet, who was shot during the confrontation. The IDF has previously said it was examining the possibility that one of the Israeli fatalities may have been caused by friendly fire.
The investigation found that troops were dispatched to accompany the group only after Palestinians began throwing stones at the group of Israelis, despite commanders knowing their tour of the area had not been approved and that Israelis are prohibited from entering Area A – which is under full Palestinian control according to the 1993 Oslo Accords.
According to the investigation, the military also failed to dispatch sufficient forces for the size of the group and the threat on the ground. It found that the troops deployed were “too limited relative to the scope of the violent incident, the number of hikers and the number of attackers.”